Shortly after the Clippers announced that they had signed Kawhi Leonard to an extension, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported they were also discussing a new deal with fellow star wing Paul George. The next day — January 11 — George said he was “very, very optimistic” that an agreement would eventually be reached.
However, nearly three months have passed, and the 33-year-old can still become a free agent this summer if he declines his $48.8MM player option for 2024/25. He will remain extension-eligible through June 30, and would also be extension-eligible all of next season if he decides to pick up that option.
On his Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link), ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said there’s a gap between what the Clippers are offering and what George wants.
“The word in the NBA is that they’re apart,” Windhorst said. “It’s not like, let’s have a big problem. They’re apart.”
Windhorst noted that a handful of teams — including the Sixers — could have the cap room necessary to sign George to a maximum-salary deal in free agency. But he doesn’t think it’ll reach that point.
“I think the league believes that Paul George wants to remain a Clipper, and there would be concern in the league about recruiting Paul George — especially if you had to give away players to open up space,” Windhorst said (hat tip to Adam Wells of Bleacher Report). “… My informed speculation is that, eventually, Paul will agree to a deal with the Clippers. It may not be for the full max, but it may be for more than what the Clippers have been offering.”
Leonard signed a three-year extension at slightly below his maximum salary. That means he received fewer years and less money than the maximum possible under the CBA. At the time, Leonard said he felt good about the chances of George and James Harden sticking around beyond this season — Harden will be a free agent this offseason and is not extension-eligible, since his existing contract didn’t cover at least three years.
President of basketball operations Lawrence Frank also said while he wanted his star players to be “compensated fairly,” “sacrifices” would be necessary to maintain flexibility in both the short and long term.
Marc Stein reported at Substack last week that there have been rumors the Clips’ offers to George “have fallen an unknown amount shy of the numbers contained” in Leonard’s extension. Still, Stein reiterated the expectation around the NBA is a deal will get done at some point.
This team is going to wake up one day and feel very, very old. These contracts are going to be terrible value.
This Clippers team is very like the Nets team with KG…
Ageing stars with one good shot left in them…
Anything more than 2 years for George and Harden is going to be a handicap until they’ve been traded for the rebuild…
Don’t pay a max to Paul George??? These guys are just making up stories at this point. When has an NBA team ever been worried about eating bad money at the end of a deal??? If you don’t pay Paul George, It means you are basically rebuilding. You have no way of replacing him. No cap space with or without him. He is a guy you can go over the cap to sign. Silliness. Teams will line up and dump whatever they need to add George. He ain’t a #1 alpha, but he is one of the best complimentary options in the league. Multi-position, Multi-skill, Multi-role guy at a high-level. No reason for the Clippers to sign him to his Max early. They are playing at the crib for him, and they can pay him the most and years.
I’d think that PG-13 (who’s a year older) would be OK with the same extension that KL signed (with a fairly nominal discount from max). The two players have had mirror contracts until KL did his extension, and that was by their design.
Maybe the LAC want PG13 to take a steeper discount from max. I could see it, at least at this stage. Maybe, before bringing the whole gang back, they want to see if its possible that they can stay healthy through a postseason. In the current talented depleted environment, they are taking the path less traveled in doing this (the general m/o is extend now and figure out if its a good deal later).
Suspect pg will just use his option as it’s worth lots of cash
He can get an extension next year as well so it’s about locking in another big deal before injury.
He should leave clippers and team up with the sixers that will be loaded with money